Morning Routine for First Grader

I have gone through this more times than I care to remember. We get clothes ready right after homework is done the day before. I have learned that this means EVERYTHING, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, underwear, hair bows etc. That way if anything needs to be washed or doesn't meet my approval we can change it with plenty of time to spare. The girls get up and do their potty stop, then breakfast, bathroom cleanup (face wash. teeth, etc) then dressed and hair done. This year it seems to work better than last year, but like I said I learned from my mistakes. With the weather getting cooler here, I will add coats to the list of getting ready the night before. (add boots snow pants mittens etc as needed)

After bath time instead of pj's get her dressed in casual, non wrinkle cloths at bedtime including socks. When she gets up she will almost be ready except for shoes, combing hair, breakfast (if she eats at home in the AM, if there's not time for a sit down breakfast, have some cereal bars and juice boxes in the car). All that's left is washing face and brushing teeth.

If her hair is too long and takes a lot of fussing with, consider a short cut.

If she doesn't like the new routine, ask if she's willing to become more cooperative.

Blessings.....

You should spend some time the night before picking out clothes and the toy for the bus. That will save some major time and conflict in the mornings.

Also, you didn't mention this, if you have the TV on during the morning, turn it off...that is a big distraction in our house. No TV until you are ready to walk out the door, then if there is time left you can watch a few minutes before it's time to leave.

Ahhh yes, the dreaded morning routine. O.K...here's what I have found that works for my 5th and 1st graders.
* I wake them up for a about 15-20 min. of extra "wake-up time".
*We always decide on outfits before bed the night before (baths too)
*Backpacks are always put by the front door after homework the night before
*I am ready for the day and have done all my morning stuff before I get them up
*I leave them to dress themselves while I get breakfast ready...(breakfast has been good incintive...no food until they're dressed)

If she tends to get stuck on certain activities, then try using a favorite song as her timer. Make it a fun thing for her to try to beat.
My oldest daughter likes me to turn on her Miley Cyrus CD and she tries to get dressed before the song ends.

Maybe a morning chart could help her establish a routine...check marks or stickers beside each completed step. Good luck!!

I don’t have a first grader at home right now but my oldest daughter who is now 13 was like that. We didn’t have any problems in Kindergarten, but since her days got longer in first grade, it seemed to affect her.

After the first week, what I did was take her out to buy some new clothes and I let her pick them out. That was exciting for her.

We would pick out her clothes, and have them all laid out the night before.
She would get her backpack all ready before bed.
As she was tucked into to bed I would ask her what she wanted for breakfast the next morning.

I would start waking her up 15 min before she had to get out of bed by climbing into bed with her and sing a silly song to her to get her smiling. By now I’ve opened her curtains to start letting light into her room.

Then I would tell her about the yummy breakfast that would be waiting for her after she got up and would tell her something silly like “better hurry before the mouse in our kitchen gobbles up all your food!!” Then I would pretend to be the mouse… “I’m going to eat your food right now!” Stuff like that always made her laugh!

It definitely worked to make the morning fun. She would start her morning in a positive mood.
My daughter is now 13 and we still have that routine except my jokes have become more suited to her age!! In fact this morning I sang to the tune of happy birthday …”Good morning to you”
I still get her laughing in the morning =-)

I know it can be so frustrating but you have a lot of great suggestions from the other Moms here so hopefully you will find what works best for your little girl!

Not ideal by any means, but I have one who takes a shower at night, gets dressed for the next day, and sleeps in her clothes. If the issue is right from the start of getting out of bed, try giving her a glass of OJ before she gets out of bed and see if getting her blood sugar up will help her start moving. Otherwise, set yourself some timers, and leave an extra 15 minutes to dead time out the door. Sometimes if it is the timer telling them how long it should take to brush teeth, that seems less negotiable than Mom standing in the bathroom telling them to get moving.

Good luck,
M.

Your daughter sounds like mine! Here's what worked for us....
* we chose clothes the night before
* we looked at what she needed to take to school and laid everything out the night before (including animals or toys for the bus)
* she helped set the table for breakfast so she knew what she was getting
* she helped make a lunch if she needed to
* I decided how many minutes she needed to get ready, and then let her THINK she was choosing. (Do you want 19 or 21 minutes to get ready?)

These things helped us over the hump....now she has extra time in the mornings and can get some reading in! Good luck!!

I have a 6yr old girl and 5 year old boy so I know your struggles!!
What time do they go to bed at night?? Mine go to bed at 8pm on Monday, thursday and friday. They have soccer at 7 on Tue & Wed so they go to bed around 8:30pm. We take the clothes out the night before and NO T.V. at all until everyone is Dressed AND has had breakfast. TV or Computer slows them down. But make sure she gets enough sleep at night and if you have to, wake her up when you wake up and she can snooze for 15minutes or so. Its all a matter of routine.. it takes kids a while to adjust..
but have u noticed..they hate waking up early in the weekday but have no trouble waking up early on the weekend! LOL!

get everything ready before bed,and wake her up 10 min before the time she need to and if she does not want to get up tell her she is going to school in pajamas (almost everytime works) and if she is not ready by the time your telling her she is going to school even if she does not have the shoes yet.
that's what i do with my 7 year old son

good luck!!!

I was slow at getting ready as a young kid and I had to get on the bus before 7 am. My own kids are not school age yet, so I will tell you what my mom did to help me get going faster. First of all, my baths were always at night, and my alarm clock was set for 5:30 am - I went to bed at 8 :00 pm, and was usually asleep by 8:30. We always picked out the clothes for the next day the night before, and we made sure the backpack was packed with EVERYTHING I needed before bed, too. When I was that little, Mom would only give me two outfits to choose from, so I still got a choice, but it wasn't as overwhelming as choosing form my whole closet full - but the choice was made at bedtime the night before, not in the morning. Cereal, bowl and spoon were laid out on the table the night before, too, so breakfast was more automatic, too. We had a specific morning routine, order to things and always did it the same way, and it was drawn on a chart on the fridge and I got stickers to put in every box completed, it also included some morning and after school chores, too - feeding the dog, cleaning up my room, doing homework, and emptying the dishwasher, as well as brushing teeth and hair, taking my vitamins, and getting dressed. I got a prize at the end of the week for accomplishing a certain number of activities/# of stickers.

I hope some of these ideas can help, I was till slow, but I was never late.

Jessie

plan the clothes and stuffy before bed.

My kids have been on a great schedule it works for us,
My kids start getting ready for bed by 6-6:30pm - this includes picking out what we want to ware, eat, bring. and we brush, floss and rinse.
Kids are in bed by 7pm and asleep by 730pm
at 615am we wake them up.
they watch tv til 630 then eat breakfast.
after they eat we get washed up, brush, floss and rinse teeth
then they get dressed. then we sit and watch TV or study/review what ever is needed.

The bus comes at 750 and I have a 7 yr old and a 4 yr old and 15 month old and all of which are on this schedule.

I have a first grader and the same problems at my house. My daughter is a night owl and often gets up after i go to bed and reads or does art projects in her room. This makes for a tired girl in the morning. What we do is pick EVERYTHING out the night before, clothes, toys for the bus, breakfast, snacks, shoes all of it. I start waking her a bit before she actually has to get up and sometimes I actually dress her while she is waking up and carry her down to breakfast. We still have rough mornings but it is better. I also have a chart on the fridge and she can earn stars for having a "good" morning or lose stars for bad behavior. Then she gets paid a little bit of money at the end of the week, provided she has stars left, LOL!

Updated

I have a first grader and the same problems at my house. My daughter is a night owl and often gets up after i go to bed and reads or does art projects in her room. This makes for a tired girl in the morning. What we do is pick EVERYTHING out the night before, clothes, toys for the bus, breakfast, snacks, shoes all of it. I start waking her a bit before she actually has to get up and sometimes I actually dress her while she is waking up and carry her down to breakfast. We still have rough mornings but it is better. I also have a chart on the fridge and she can earn stars for having a "good" morning or lose stars for bad behavior. Then she gets paid a little bit of money at the end of the week, provided she has stars left, LOL!

I have a Kindergartner & 3rd grader. I don't think anyone has smooth mornings all the time. Ours go pretty well, though, and the 3rd grader has ADHD which is challenging to get anywhere on time.

The night before, I have their clothes & shoes laid out on the end of their beds. Back packs or book bags with completed, signed homework assignments are zipped up & sitting by the door ready to go. Lunches are completely packed & sitting on a shelf in the refrigerator. Breakfast dishes are laid out on the table, the toaster is put on the cupboard, along with the loaf of bread & butter knife. Instant oatmeal packages (including a measuring cup) or boxed breakfast cereal are sitting on the table. The girls pony tail bands & hair ribbons are set out beside her brush & comb by the bathroom sink. Toothbrushes & toothpaste are laid out beside the bathroom sink. Jackets, coats, mittens, boots, are sitting on the floor by the front door. ALL of this is done the night before - every night!

I'm a firm believer in letting children make their own choices and being responsible for themselves, but when I'm the one that has to see that they get to the bus on time, I make ALL of those choices. This is our routine and they both accept it and rarely challenge my choices. They don't get asked what they want to wear, eat for breakfast or lunch. I choose and provide something different for them to wear and eat (breakfast & packed school lunch) every day. They like the variety and like my choices.

Once they get home from school, everything changes. They choose and fix their own after school snacks. They must do their homework before TV or friends, but after that's done they have complete decision making choices (including what they want for supper), until bedtime (8:30 p.m.). They often have friends over or they play at friends houses until supper time.

During the day while they are at school I often take care of many of the things I listed above, in preparation for the next day so that I have time to spend with the children in the evening. I read to them every night before bedtime - we're currently reading "The Little House on the Prairie" series and they both can hardly wait to climb into bed to hear the next chapter. Yes, some nights they are tired, cranky, irritable, and fight with each other over anything and everything - including going to bed. If I've given them 1-2 warnings about getting teeth brushed, P.J.'s on, etc., and they are still fooling around, I loudly announce that I'm starting to read the next chapter of Little House on the Prairie, and I start reading out loud even if no one is there but myself, and they usually start flying to get done and come running as fast as possible so as not to miss out on what I am reading.

For those of you who feel that your children MUST be allowed to make all of these choices (above) themselves, you can still ask them or have them do it all the night before (i.e., choosing their clothes, putting book bags, coats, etc., by the front door, etc.).

For my sanity & as a time saver, I choose to make those decisions and do them myself - but only when they are in school. Weekends & summer vacations are an entirely different matter. I realize that as they get older they will balk at my decisions & choosing to do these things myself on school nights, but until then, this is what works for me. It worked well last year and so far this year. Consistency is the key to success with doing it this way, though. If you're too tired to do it some nights and let "Susie" decide in the morning what she wants to wear, eat for breakfast, lunch, etc., then Susie will balk and give you a tough time on "your decision" days, also.

We have a rule at our house that NO toys of any type or size, go to school or get played with on the bus. If they don't have reading assignments they can do on the bus, I stick an extra book in their back pack for them to read if they get bored.

Strangely, the 3rd grade ADHD child (boy) is more compliant in general than the Kindergarten girl, who is strong willed.

than the

Hi J. - We went around and around with our son getting ready for school - it was a nagfest every morning and I hated it. We just started talking to him about taking personal responsibility for things and that we would "reward" him for taking on more responsibility by giving him more privileges. He totally understood when I told him how I knew he hated me nagging him and that I, in turn, hated having to nag. We first had to find out something that he wanted as a reward - he wanted time on the computer.

We set up a little checklist for him before school - if he got done with 20 minutes to spare before he had to leave for the bus, then he got to play on the computer for 20 minutes.

The checklist was pretty simple - get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, brush hair, shoes tied, homework in backpack

He was only 6 in 1st grade but he did really well at this. I still had to say things like "it's time for the 20min checklist" but the structure and learning how to motivate himself really did wonders for him.

"I can sympathise with not wanting to go too, but going in your nightgown is only going to make it even harder".

I have a first grader too so I have some experience. Picking out clothes is tough. In our house the rule is my daughter picks out her clothes the night before and she is to wear those clothes (no wardrobe changes in the morning!). If she makes changes fast enough that I don't notice, then I let it go. If she makes us late with clothing changes, then I pick them out the next day and she wears whatever I choose. (She hates the idea of me picking out her clothes).

I would do the same with the toy.

We have had some luck with chore charts too.

I have success using a digital hand held timer with my 5 yr old when I need her to get ready. (2 minutes to brush her teeth, 4 minutes to get dressed and so on...) She wants to beat the timer so has always succeeded. Its a bit of a pain but works for me.

The morning routine can be so frustrating at any age. But I would definitely start a routine and don't budge from it. Tell her she has so many minutes to get ready period...if you have to get a timer so that she will know when time is up. Be firm, be sure to pick out clothes the night before etc. Although we want to sympathize with them we also know that we have to be firm, while it maybe a rough few days she will get in the routine quickly and mornings will go a lot better. Good Luck

My son was very bad the first year. I ended up clocking everything. For example, he had to be up at 7:40, otherwise punishment (usually I threatened him with no tv or video games after school). Then 7:55 he had to sit at the breakfast table dressed and ready for breakfast. I usually gave him a 5 minute warning at 7:50. Then breakfast from 7:55 till 8:10. If he wasn't done, tough luck. At 8:10 I sent him back upstairs to brush his teeth, wash face, comb hair. At 8:20 he had to come down, put on his shoes and be out the door at 8:25. I always set the kitchen timer so he knew when "the next phase" started. Over the school, what started as threatening to take away privileges ended up becoming almost like a game. But you have to be firm and you have to follow through with your threats. He got it really quickly, the hardest thing was to get him out of bed. He is still not a morning person. Now he is in 3rd grade and he is doing very well. Much less threats and no more yelling in the morning.

your the mom take control-get clothes ready nite before-stuffed animal?? set up boundaries an take control of your morning-dont argue-put your foot down.

My kids (1st and 3rd grades) are up at 7:30. They have until 8am to get dressed and watch cartoons. I usually pick out pants/shorts and get socks out while I am telling them it's time to get up - all they have to do is choose a shirt. Breakfast is at 8, and it's at the kitchen table and yes, I let them watch cartoons while they eat. Breakfast done at 8:25, then go brush teeth and I do my daughters hair while she is brushing her teeth. 5mins of brushing etc, then get shoes, jackets, backpacks etc and out the door by 8:35. And somewhere during that time I also manage to pack two lunches.

At other times of the day, talk with her and see if you can find anything about school that is bugging her. Also, ask her teacher if he/she notices anything that may be an issue for your girl.

The other suggestions for mornings have about everything I can think of. Maybe she would like to plan out the events on a chart, pose for pictures, put it together and then move activities from To Do over to Done. In other words, if she's involved, maybe she would be more likely to get things done. p.s. liked the oj suggestion. Very clever!

Have you thought about waking her up 5 minutes earlier for some special cuddle time? My daughter loves that. Also, my husband asks her if she wants to walk or be carried to the kitchen table. She usually says she is too tired and has him carry her. I think she just enjoys a little more cuddles. Good luck!

My son is in first grade this year and we've had a hard time getting him up. I make him pick out clothes the night before so that there is no time choosing clothes in the morning. Also we talk about what he wants for breakfast the night before. I also get him up 10-15 minutes before he actually has to. If he gets ready in a timely manner then he can eat his breakfast in front of the TV, otherwise he can't watch TV. Also a lot of praise when he does a good job getting ready.